Radiation therapy is the use of penetrating beams of radiation to treat disease. Various forms of radiation therapy, including photon, electron, and neutron radiation, are used on a daily basis in the United States and throughout the world. One major use of radiation therapy is the treatment of cancerous tumors. The basic effect of radiation therapy is to destroy the ability of cells to divide and grow by damaging their DNA strands. This effect is useful in killing cancerous cells, but it has the major disadvantage of damaging healthy tissue as well. As a result, the patient may be required to live with debilitating side effects including limb or organ swelling, thickening and hardening of tissue, and chronic or constant pain.
The deleterious side effects produced in the patient as a result of radiation therapy are known as radiation toxicities. Radiation toxicities are associated with any ionizing radiation treatment and include fibrotic tissue (scar tissue), xerostomia (loss of salivary function), trismus (closure of the jaw), radiation proctitis (inflammation of the rectum), limited range of motion, loss of motor coordination, edema (swelling), and lymphedema (swelling resulting from obstruction of the lymphatic vessels or lymph nodes). Unfortunately, the side effects associated with radiation therapy are progressive in most cases and they tend to worsen over time. Current practice for treating late side effects of cancer treatment include physical therapy, massage, exercise, and drugs, such as diuretics, pain killers, steroids, and saliva inducers. However, in most cases, these treatments provide the patient with only minimal relief, and the patient may be required to live with the debilitating side effects of radiation therapy.
Thus, a need has long existed in the industry for a method of providing a more effective method of alleviating the radiation toxicities associated with radiation therapy.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method that alleviates the radiation toxicities associated with radiation therapy.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method for pre-treating a patient to avoid the radiation toxicities associated with radiation therapy.